From Rachel's flickr photostream

So, two weeks ago I got home from Vegas and then, the next morning, Whit and I flew down to Zihuatanejo, Mexico for Annie and Andrew's wedding. This wedding was a long time coming, I gotta tell you. While relatively "new" friends, Andrew and Annie (and associated crew) have been a really fun part of my living in Los Angeles. From pool parties at Andrew's place to the Halloween bus parties to seeing Daft Punk, this group is particularly good at raging, I gotta say. Annie had a crazy battle with cancer for most of last year and I am happy to report that it's now pretty much gone--so this wedding was obviously sort of the culmination of a very long, emotional battle. I was able to do a toast at the wedding and remarked that usually when people throw a destination wedding, they can count on about 70% of the invite list not showing up. Pretty much EVERYONE showed up to their wedding; we'd all been looking forward to it like crazy.

Whit hanging out on our balcony

Oddly enough, I had actually been down here before--to DJ our friend Liz and Craig's wedding. I honestly have no idea how this whole wedding DJ thing got started, I gotta admit. I mean, I really like it--nothing is worse than watching a party flail because the music is terrible. I figure if I wasn't playing music I would be judging it, so if I have a chance to contribute and rock the party, well, hey! I'm happy to do it. This summer is really odd, though--I think I have at least 2, possibly 3 more weddings to play at.

Technical interlude:

While I love playing records and all that, I don't do it anymore in wedding situations. I am still using Abelton Live 6 (LE, which is annoying but I'll skip that diatribe) and basically it allows me play songs and samples all at once through a software mixer (it's more complicated, actually way more complicated than that but whatever), all at whatever tempo I choose. This is obviously useful for dancing, so I can seamlessly blend different songs together and not disrupt the dancing with hectic mixing. I only use that for the dancing portion--I use an ever changing series of playlists in iTunes for the reception and dinner parts of the night--which usually lasts anywhere from 2-5 hours, depending on how crazy the crowd is. When done properly, I have two channels of audio going out of the computer (using an iMic USB audio thing) so I can cue up one song in my headphones while another song is playing out to the crowd. This did not work in Mexico but it didn't really matter. In my main display, I have all the songs in various bins, or categories--pop, disco, hip hop, opening, closing, beats, samples, etc and then I just move sort of make a mix of the fly based on what people are grooving to. The initial setup (getting Live to "know" the music, setting up the bins, and other busy work) can take anywhere from 3-40 hours. Now that I have it all setup, I could easily play a full wedding plus at least 6 hours of dancing in about 30 minutes.

Dance people, dance! (thanks, Rachel)

Back to the wedding. First off, Annie and Andrew rocked it. They made it really easy for everyone to get rooms where the wedding was going to be, and since the hotels are all next to each other on the beach, it was really easy for everyone to hang out during the days leading up to and following the wedding. (Most of us got there Friday, the wedding was on Saturday, then most of stayed through Wednesday, so it was really quite amazingly awesome.) We ended up hanging out by the beach or the pool most of the days.

work it!

this is the view from the pool area--that's Andrew in the hat on the left.
(Rachel, you rock with the photos).

We really did have a good time. We ended up staying up late and sleeping really late, like 11:30 and noon style. It was the most sleep I've had in a long time without being interrupted by construction..it was awesome. We ended up going out in the bay really late at night (on the beach) and hanging out with this crazy, crazy bioluminescence -- you would stand there, wave your hand in the water, and it would like up, like the trail of Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. It was outtasight amazing.

The only problematic parts were the ongoing bouts with "The Big D" -- people were getting wiped out with problematic stomachs and that kind of thing. Thankfully, it would usually pass in 24 hours or so. Whit and I got off pretty lucky, but yeah, there was a darker side to paradise, no doubt.

Finally, the DJing went really, really well. I played a drinks set, a dinner set, and then a dance set that lasted probably about 2 hours on the main sound system (complete with crazy lights!), but then we moved down the beach a bit to the after party and I did more mixing for another 2-3 hours, and then just did the play list thing for another hour or so...we closed up shop around 3:45 in the morning! Pretty raging--this crew loves to dance and get down.

Special, mighty and massive shouts out to DJ Dru who was an invaluable help for the music making. We did a little session at work and he was able to work some tracks for me---including digitizing a few records from 1993-1994 that I knew Annie would LOVE from back in the day which indeed brought the house down--and helped me basically get the night going. He's got a few mixes you should check out here--he's a very, very, very good DJ.

Nice, cool! Next stop..Florida.

Tags: weddings, dj, travel

View from my hotel room at The Venetian in Las Vegas.


View from our hotel room in Zihuatenejo, Mexico


View from the condo in Forida.

Right. Where to begin. I thought--I really did--that I would be this roving writer, chronicling my travels each night and during my flights, "blogging it out" like a pro. But I am not a pro, I am guy who goes to bed, reads a book and passes out. A guy who walks on the plane, fastens his seat belt and passes out. A guy who thinks about wriitng in his blog and realizes, "I need to do my screenwriting homework!" (Yes, the class is in full gear and yes, it's not like I need more to do.)

It's like that.



Las Vegas:

There were apparently over 5,000 people who went to my work conference. I knew about 20 of them.

The conference in Las Vegas was actually super fun. I say "actually" because it was a work function and it was in Las Vegas, and, I admit, I don't always connect "fun" to those places. Regardless, it went really well. Apparently the videos I did went over quite well and, well, the live presentation that I was a part of really, really went well. It was the first time in a long time where I was basically responsible for driving a live show forward (I was basically a host/emcee with some comedic interviews sprinkled throughout to make sure the audience was listening, kind of an over the top Russian Jay Leno, truth be told. Okay, here's a pic that was taken during my pre-show, where the audience came in to blaring nationalistic music while I glared at them and sipped vodka.

I did the set, too:

We also saw Ka, which was a really interesting Cirque du Soleil show. It was more of a show than circus, and I must admit it was impressive mostly because the set and stage were crazy. I mean, the cast did a great job with the acrobatics and balancing, but they had this crazy stage on hydraulics that was really just breathtaking--or, correction: it helped create some amazing, breath taking scenes. Let's see..whoa, here's a video, turn down the sound and check it out. We had perfect scenes--rumor has it that one of our co-workers has an American Express Black Card and apparently one of the perks is that Cirque du Soleil saves a block of tickets for Black Card holders just in case. Madness!

The stay in Vegas was busier than I thought it would be and I wasn't able to check in with my friends in Vegas. Whit and I will have to come back and visit...we have at least one event that we should probably check out...


Interlude:

I have been noticing something lately. I get a lot of spam--hundreds and hundreds of emails a month--and they mail is usually confined to some fairly unsurprising themes: male performance pills, vitamins...and that's about it. However, recently, I am getting flooded with "work from home!" and "we'll help with your impending foreclosure!" emails. I guess people are already at home (maybe even packing it up, sadly) and the spammers are figuring the recipients are already home so but so depressed that even the powerful of pills won't improve the situation..

I obviously have a lot more to write, but I figure I won't go for the epic entry right just yet (I gotta eat dinner anyway). However, wish me luck tomorrow, I am actually auditioning for a musical tomorrow. Lead role. We'll see how it goes.

Coming up:
- DJ'ing on the beach!
- Mike sings leads with the local band!
- What's up with my hip flexor?

Tags: weddings, vacation, beaches, music